India’s ‘Visaranai’ out of Oscar race

Los Angeles, Dec 16 (IANS) National Award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s Tamil drama “Visaranai” has been winnowed out of the Best Foreign Language Film category of the upcoming 89th Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced the nine films that will advance to the next round of voting.

As many as 85 films had originally been considered in the category. The shortlist will be further trimmed down to the final five nominations, to be announced on January 24, next year.

Based on the novel “Lock Up” by auto-rickshaw driver-turned-writer M. Chandrakumar, the film is about organised crime within the police force. It also focuses the spotlight on police brutality. “Visaranai” features Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Ajay Ghosh and Kishore in the lead.